MicroLED is having a moment. Projection isn't going anywhere.

A dedicated home theater with dark walls, a large projection screen, acoustic panels, wall-mounted speakers and a row of black leather recliners on star-patterned carpet — The demo theater.

Walking the CEDIA show floor in Denver, you could come away thinking MicroLED is about to eat projection alive. The LED walls were everywhere, and the demos were genuinely impressive.

I don’t think that’s where this is headed, and I’m not the only one. CE Pro’s roundup of the trends at this year’s show came to the same place. The projection-side manufacturers they talked to, Screen Innovations and Sony among them, described MicroLED and projection as living side by side rather than one replacing the other, and compared projection to vinyl records: newer technology exists, and people still choose the older format on purpose.

That matches what I see. The projector that stayed in our demo theater is an Epson LS12000, and it’s our best-selling projector to date. Somebody building a dedicated theater room usually wants the scale, the dark room, and a big picture on a screen.

A large Samsung MicroLED display at a trade show booth showing a field of red flowers, with a MICRO LED sign on the dark wall beside it — A Samsung MicroLED display. Photo: Santasgift, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

MicroLED is real, and it’s growing. For a bright room, a space where a projector can’t go, or a client who wants a showpiece that works in daylight, it’s a legitimate option. But if you’re worried projection is on its way out, it isn’t. It’s a different tool for a different room.